Todd Golden is a nickname guy.
Thomas Haugh, Florida’s leading scorer and a national breakout star, is Tommy. Urban Klavzar, the Gators’ first guard off the bench, is Urby. Which makes “Billy D” none other than Billy Donovan, the longtime Florida coach and current Chicago Bulls coach who cemented himself in college hoops history by winning back-to-back national titles in 2006 and 2007.
In April, Golden made his own history by leading Florida to its third national championship. Considering Donovan is one of just three coaches in the modern era to win consecutive championships, along with Mike Krzyzewski and Dan Hurley, Golden phoned Billy D to pick his brain ahead of Florida’s quest to repeat.
Donovan’s advice?
You’re not defending s———.
BOOGI33 🫨
📺 ESPN pic.twitter.com/6WtIOZirFQ
— Florida Gators Men’s Basketball (@GatorsMBK) December 3, 2025
“It’s a whole new team,” Golden remembers Donovan saying. “You’ve got a new path to blaze. These guys gotta build their own identities — and I think we’re currently in the middle of working through that.”
Consider that sentiment the through line of Florida’s season thus far, one that remains a work in progress. After losing their starting backcourt from last season, the Gators sit at 5-3 and No. 18 in the country entering Tuesday’s clash with No. 5 UConn. Three of Florida’s wins have come against high-major teams, yet all of its losses have come against top-60 KenPom foes: the type UF will have to beat en masse to make another deep postseason run.
“We’re not in a terrible spot. I think we’re still performing like a top-20 team — but I expect us to be a top-10 team when we get to where we need to be,” Golden said. “We’re still trying to make that jump.”
That macro mission was evident on a micro level in Florida’s last game: a 67-66 loss at undefeated Duke, in one of the toughest environments in college basketball. Florida fell behind by as many as 15 points in the first half and looked lost for stretches offensively, yet still rallied to retake the lead with under a minute to play, fueled by a dynamic defensive effort.
But then, whoosh, all that hard-fought effort fell apart in the game’s final 30 seconds. Florida allowed Duke to get off the game-winning 3, then unluckily turned it over — when the ball bounced off transfer guard Boogie Fland’s foot — to cost the Gators what would’ve been a resume-defining win.
“Tonight,” Golden said, “we were good enough.”
But as Golden learned firsthand last season, there’s a chasm between “good enough” and actually getting the job done.
And this season’s Gators are still learning how to close the gap.
There are plenty of reasons to believe, though, that Florida’s breakthrough is coming. That the Gators — as they did over the final two months of last season, when they beat 10 straight top-25 KenPom teams — have what it takes to beat some of the nation’s toughest teams. And that optimism begins with Haugh, who has gone from intriguing bench contributor to centerpiece of a team with hopes of winning the SEC.
Haugh leads Florida in points (18.6) and minutes (35) per game, looking every bit like a future first-round pick and potential All-American. He’s also seventh in KenPom’s player of the year rankings, just ahead of potential No. 1 pick AJ Dybantsa at BYU.
But just as important? Haugh has become the linchpin for Florida’s rotation as a jumbo-sized wing who can do a little bit of everything. He’s the constant in each of UF’s most-played lineups, per CBB Analytics, filling the exact role Golden hypothesized he could in the preseason.
“He’s been fantastic,” Golden said, grinning.
Golden had to adjust this offseason to life without guards Will Richard, Alijah Martin and Final Four Most Outstanding Player Walter Clayton Jr., who combined for over half of Florida’s scoring. One of Golden’s primary goals was finding more minutes for his four returning bigs: Haugh, Alex Condon, Rueben Chinyelu and Micah Handlogten. Last season, Florida’s staff allocated about 80 minutes per game — out of a possible 200 — to that quartet. But this summer, Golden decided he wanted to up that total to 100 or 110 minutes per game, “to get our best players on the floor as much as possible.”
Haugh was the key to doing so. At 6 feet 9, the Pennsylvania native was the most mobile of Florida’s bigs, capable of sniping shots from the perimeter while still hanging defensively with smaller, quicker wings. Plus, Haugh’s postseason breakout — 12 points and 6.6 rebounds across UF’s nine wins in the SEC and NCAA tournaments — suggested he was capable of more.
This, uh, more than qualifies.
Florida’s other returning bigs have played to their strengths, too. Condon is averaging career-high numbers across the board — in points (15.1 per game), rebounds (9) and assists (3) — while taking on much more of a leadership role. Chinyelu is one of just nine high-major players averaging a double-double, while posting the best net rating on the team, per CBB Analytics. Even Handlogten — who returned in February from a devastating lower leg fracture — has started looking more like his pre-injury self, giving Golden more frontcourt depth than almost any other team has.
But as Golden saw in the spring, guards win in March. And right now, his — namely the transfer imports he added, Fland (from Arkansas) and Xaivian Lee (from Princeton) — are still a mixed bag.
After a slow start offensively, Fland is starting to find his form, scoring 16 against Duke, none more noteworthy than his 3-pointer with 34.6 seconds left that (temporarily) put Florida ahead. Like Condon — who waited until the day before the NBA Draft withdrawal deadline to announce his return to Gainesville — Fland would’ve been drafted this summer if he had opted to stay in. But ultimately, he chose to return to school to boost his stock. And after watching Florida’s guards take off last season, when he entered the transfer portal, it was a fairly easy sell. As Golden said: “We had some really, really good proof of concept from last year.”
Lee, on the other hand, has struggled more after transferring up from the Ivy League. Per CBB Analytics, of all 16 high-major players shooting under 30 percent overall, Lee has played the most minutes and taken the most shots and is the only one to have started all of his team’s games.
That’s not to say Lee hasn’t shown flashes — he had a team-high 20 points against Providence, which suggested a turn for the better — but the 6-foot-4 senior is still seeking consistency at the high-major level.
And Golden, in turn, is still searching for the right combinations to maximize all his various talents.
“We’re definitely,” Golden said, “still figuring things out.”
But if there’s one lesson from the spring that Golden can apply to this season’s roster, it’s not to panic. To realize that, no matter how good a team is, bad nights and bounces happen. Gonzaga, after all, is ranked No. 8 in the country and a Final Four favorite — and got blown out by 40 during Feast Week. Last week’s No. 1 team, Purdue, just suffered its worst home loss in the storied history of Mackey Arena. And as Golden remembers, his title team trailed Georgia by 26 in the first half in February, in what proved to be Florida’s last loss last season.
“If we would have had this start last year, I might be a little more tense about it, a little more concerned. But playing 40 games last year, you realize some of the highs and the lows,” Golden said. “It’s just having that understanding. Like, listen, it’s not always gonna be perfect.”
So, when will everything click for Florida this season? Nobody knows. Maybe as early as Tuesday against No. 5 UConn, in a rematch of one of the best Round of 32 games from last season. Maybe once SEC play begins, after the Gators have played a few more games. Or maybe not until the brink of the postseason, like last year, when a team with a chance became one on a mission.
The only thing that is certain about Florida’s repeat bid, though?
The Gators aren’t treating it like one, at all.
“We’re still approaching everything with that fear of not being good enough. … We’re not content after winning the national championship,” Golden said. “Even though, yeah, we won last year and we’ve gotten a lot of respect for it, it’s in the past — and what we’re working on now is brand new.”